ATI HD 5670 PCIe 1.0 compatability

SoapSurgeon · 17 Aug 2010 at 21:36

Hi,

My bro is using my parents old machine - it is a prefabricated Fujitsu-Siemens Scaleo P machine. The graphics card that it came with was an ATI x300 card which was pretty poor. I bought him a new Sapphire HD 5670 graphics card. However, when he installs it the computer refuses to POST.

Basically, I have come to the conclusion that there seems to be a compatability problem between the mobo and gfx card - possibly because the gfx is PCIe 2.1 and the mobo has a PCIe 1.0 slot. I thought they were meant to be backwards compatible but it appears there are a few out there with similar problems.

Does anyone have any solutions? I thought about mobo bios but the only bios i could find on the fujitsu site was from 2005 (too old to risk). The mobo in question is an Asus P5GD1-FM.

My only other suggestion was to get a new mobo but i dont know enough about Socket 775 mobos and none seem to state whether its PCIe 1.0 or 2.0+. Do you have any suggestions?

Matt

SoapSurgeon · 17 Aug 2010 at 21:44

Thanks for the reply.

I wanted a card that was fairly modern and would last him a while. He's upgraded the RAM to 3Gb so there is plenty there, only thing limiting would be the CPU I guess. Still, it should be a big improvement over the x300?

Would a new mobo guarantee the card to work (assuming the card is not faulty) or could it be not enough power, for instance?

SoapSurgeon · 17 Aug 2010 at 21:55

350w.

He's just going to test another PSU. I would have thought the PSU is fine. I will try and source another machine to test the card in, but i live over 100 miles away so its difficult!

edit: This is the mobo manual http://uk.ts.fujitsu.com/rl/servicesupport/techsupport/boards/Motherboards/asus/P5GD1-FM/asus-P5GD1-FM.pdf

edit 2: He tried a 400w PSU and it still didnt work.

SoapSurgeon · 18 Aug 2010 at 10:13

It looks like this is the problem im experiencing. A relatively 'cheap' upgrade so my brother can play the latest games and now im looking at a new mobo as well. The only problem is I can't find a motherboard that is socket 775 AND DDR1 ram.

Think it will be cheaper to go DDR2 and buy RAM on top of that.

Anyone have any suggestions?

SoapSurgeon · 18 Aug 2010 at 10:29

Well the only other GFX card I could test with is an nvidia 8600GT - not sure if that would prove conclusive?

It would definitely be easier though. I also might have access to a Socket 775 board with DDR2 - that would only need some DDR2 memory then (assuming it all works)

SoapSurgeon · 18 Aug 2010 at 10:36

Yeah a pentium 4, not sure of the GHz.

Ideally he'd ditch the mobo now because it seems a bit pap!

SoapSurgeon · 18 Aug 2010 at 10:53

Hmmm thats a good point. I was thinking because I can get the mobo for free it would be the cheaper route (just buy some memory). Am I right in thinking that socket 775 allows him to upgrade to core 2 duo etc at a later date?

Im just a bit wary of putting more cash down on another GFX card and it not working. Even if I could return the ATI card, it could just be more hassle in the long run? Or am i being paranoid?

SoapSurgeon · 18 Aug 2010 at 11:09

Apparently it is an Asus P5KSE which supports

Pentium 4, Pentium 4 Extreme Edition, Pentium Extreme Edition, Pentium D, Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Quad, Pentium Dual Core, Celeron 400 sequence

So it should be ok, but I dont know whether this board is 'modern' enough to not suffer the same problems - we will find out i guess.